Kerschens on the loose: Paris

Paris, oh la la! Such a beautiful city. It was a little more stressful to be here than to be in London, though, because of the language. I learned French in high school, but that was 4 years ago and in the meantime German has basically taken over the foreign language section of my mind. Nobody else in the family speaks a lick of French though, so I was forced to be the interpreter. It actually went ok most of the time, just sometimes I would get stressed when everybody was asking all at once "what's this? what's in that pastry?" etc. etc.

One thing that surprised me about Paris was how friendly the waiters/clerks were in general. I know it's a stereotype, but I had heard that waiters in Paris tended to be unfriendly bordering on downright rude, especially to Americans. But the ones we had were for the most part extremely nice, especially the waitress at dinner the last night, who gave us a free round of amaretto shots after dinner. I think it did help that I could speak some french, because then they could see that we were at least trying.

Besides eating lots of delicious food and even more delicious desserts, our activities included climbing up to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower (it was a lot of steps but a spectacular view), going to the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay, and visiting the Arc de Triomphe, Luxembourg Gardens, Notre Dame and Sacre-Coeur. I particularly liked the museums and Sacre-Coeur; I would have liked to explore the Montmartre area around Sacre-Coeur a little more. But it was all around a lovely 3 days with excellent food and gorgeous weather again. So I can't really complain too much :)


Arc de Triomphe (in the middle of a huge traffic circle, which we had the pleasure of driving through on our way to Versailles); below the Arc there was some kind of ceremony for WWII veterans going on, from what I could tell.



more veterans; the Eiffel Tower! one of the most gorgeous buildings you will ever see. So elegant.



unfortunately we got there just a couple minutes too late to really get a good picture of the sun setting on Sacre-Coeur



long line for the elevator (which is why we took the stairs)



Sunset; Sacre-Coeur at night



Paris at dusk



the Eiffel Tower with the sparkling lights that come on several times per night; Place de la Concorde; obelisk (with Arc de Triomph in the background to the right)



in the Tuileries Gardens I believe; entrance to the Louvre



the famous Louvre pyramids created by I.M. Pei



various views of the Seine; Notre Dame



one of the thousands of sidewalk cafes; in the Luxembourg Gardens



sunset over the Seine; entrance to a metro station; Notre Dame



Notre Dame de Paris and roses



Inside the Musee D'Orsay (a renovated train station). In the picture on the right you can see Sacre-Coeur in the distance


beautiful Sacre-Coeur



more views from the top (including the Eiffel Tower in the distance)



In the Sacre-Coeur dome and crypt. We found a continuation of the Tour de Denny my dad and I had done in Munich: a state of Saint Denis, the patron saint of Paris



Sacre-Coeur and Montmartre



When we were by Notre Dame the first time a memorial service for the victims of the Air France flight that crashed in the ocean by Brazil was being held.